Stalking the Halls of QuakeCon with NVIDIA’s GeForce Team

Clay Causin is in his element. He’s striding across a huge hall at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas housing thousands of gamers – and their PCs – for the annual QuakeCon gaming community event.

The vast space is dark, lit only by the monitors of more than 3,000 PCs. Gamers are everywhere – slamming energy drinks, chowing on pizza, and whooping when they score a victory in one of the thousands of games going all around Clay.

Clay, a former Marine, is trying to move quietly. He’s scanning the PC rigs of gamers playing on the long tables set up at the show. He’s got a brand new Tt eSports Poseiden Z mechanical keyboard under his arm, and he’s looking to give it to the right gamer. It’s not easy. Every 20 yards or so someone recognizes him and stops him to catch up.

Sometimes, Clay explains, he gets the jump on someone sleeping and wakes them with a special surprise. Within a few minutes he finds the next best thing. As Bennett Dodson and his friends at the ACD gaming team are blasting away at the back of the hall, Clay slips quietly right up behind him. He takes one look at Bennett’s 2003 vintage keyboard and makes his move.

He slides a new keyboard between Bennett Dodson and the screen and makes Bennett – also known as “Tubes” — a proposition. “How would you like a new keyboard,” he says with a grin. Bennett shakes his head, looks down, looks up at Clay and smiles. “If that’s the keyboard, I don’t think I can say no.”

Clay’s just one of a team of NVIDIANs mixing it up at the show. And that involves more than just random acts of kindness – product giveways to gamers who look like they could use an upgrade or free pizzas for hungry gamers. Every few feet Clay is stopped by a QuakeCon veteran who wants to catch up, or an NVIDIA customer looking for technical help.

Sometimes Clay Causin catches gamers sleeping.

The show, Clay explains, is the Woodstock of gaming events. Put together by a crew of volunteers who have done this for more than a decade, the event can seem like a family reunion as much as a gaming show. Gamers drive from all over the country to the gathering, picking up friends met through the QuakeCon forums community who need rides from all over the country.

Some gamers bring their toddlers. Others, like Lord Dad, a teacher in Dallas, are brought along by their daughters. His is happily blasting away at DOTA 2 nearby with her boyfriend next to her.

As a result, it’s an event where gamers spend as much time helping each other out – and socializing – as gaming or gawking at the latest new products. And like many members of the GeForce team, Clay seems to know everyone as he stops by a table set up in the gaming hall to talk to some of the event’s organizers. Some have been coming to QuakeCon for more than a decade.

Not that there wasn’t plenty of gear to ogle, too. Gamers brought a wild array of gaming rigs to the show. Some were encased in fishtanks. Others were mounted within armored shells. Almost all the gamers at the show display – or brag – about their NVIDIA graphics cards. And everyone wants to know about NVIDIA’s next product.

But it’s a story that’s about more than just products. When Clay emerges from the darkened “Bring Your Own PC” hall into the sunlit lobby of the Hilton Anatole, he was ambushed by Sean and Shaun, a pair of friends Clay had met just the day before at the show. And they have something for him: a case of Bawls Guarana Cherry Soda. Clay just smiles, cracks open the case, and passes around a few cans of the energy drink.

My Uncle
Riley got an almost new red GMC Canyon just by some parttime working online
with a laptop. visit their website C­a­s­h­f­i­g­.­C­O­M­

simmonsdiane22

my best friend’s sister makes $62 hourly on the laptop . She has been laid off for six months but last month her income was $19401 just working on the laptop for a few hours. try this out
========>>>>> http://WWW.MONEYKIN.COM

dorothywjenkins

my classmate’s aunt makes $68 every hour on the computer . She has been
fired for 7 months but last month her paycheck was $15495 just working on the
computer for a few hours. visit the site C­a­s­h­f­i­g­.­C­O­M­

Sarah Pedersen

If only I had the money to join the event and bring my gaming rig despite my fear of flying! Nothing should stand in the way for a real hardcore gamer like myself. I love to show off and brag about my Nvidia card.
I even have an application to my Logitech G19 keyboard to watch how my graphics card is doing. I am proud to support you through your products and own them of course. Naturally I will buy, to ones surprise at all, a Nvidia card or two when you launch the Maxwell series. I could use a significantly more powerful pair of graphics cards to my gaming rig. Gaming with your awesome 3D Vision technology is very demanding for the graphics card or cards. Buy the experience is literally blowing you away in the third dimension.
I would love to discuss a lot about your awesome products with you and to learn a considerably lot more about them.
And the fact you handed out gear to sleepy gamers is great. Though it seems you could use some stalking practise, hehe.
The fact that such and old game series like Quake is still having an event is rather nice.
To be honest I am fed up and tired at all the attention Dota, League of Legends and Counter Strike gets. Unreal Tournament will and still is the game that beats Counter Strike in my humble opinion.
I have tried Counter Strike before, but it disappointed me a lot and it stole the gameplay from Unreal Tournament and graphics from Half Life.
By the way, I still game Unreal Tournament and love it.
Nvidia ftw!

fefe

wow dat comment bot is terra-bad…

Brian Caulfield

Anyone got any stories about running into NVIDIANs at community events that they’d like to share?